


Walk on Air

by magicgenetek



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Gen, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, bumi ii: fan wielding sexpot, how much of republic city will get blown up, lieutenant: he just won't stay down, part james bond film, part love story, part murder mystery, stay tuned
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-06-29
Updated: 2012-07-27
Packaged: 2017-11-08 20:23:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/447163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicgenetek/pseuds/magicgenetek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While the Avatar seeks to regain her bending, trouble brews in Republic City! Although the Equalists have technically been defeated, they remain popular, and unrest brews as the United Forces occupy the city. The only people capable of saving the day are international super-general and everyone's man Bumi II and Amon's unlucky in life and love Lieutenant - if Bumi can get the Lieutenant to go along with it!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Amon fled, leaving a trail of white water behind him. Korra watched; she doubted she follow him, not with the rudimentary airbending she has, and not with him going at such speeds. Did she even need to follow him, with his reputation lost? Mako turned to leave, but Korra lingered, stared – Amon was going to Air Temple Island. Would he reunite with Tarrlok?

And then Mako shrieked and dropped. A bola wrapped round his head and another around his arms; he landed a foot away from the broken window, where she still stood.

She turned.

Mustache guy – no, his name was Lieutenant – whoever he was stood there, an Equalist at each arm to help him stay upright. A dozen more waited behind him, bolas and gloves at the ready. 

“What are you doing? Amon’s a bender! Why are you attacking me?” 

Lieutenant shook his head. His nose was oozing blood, and fine lines of bruises had started to line the edge of his face. “Amon may have been a fraud, but we aren’t. The Equalists,” he said, glaring up at her, “are still here. Surrender.”

“Or what?”

“Or we’ll shove you out the window!” one of the short Equalists chirped. The Lieutenant waved them down. 

“We are not Amon,” Lieutenant said. “If you surrender now, you won’t be harmed.” His teeth were stained pink; he winced with every breath. “Don’t make this worse for yourself.”

Korra stared at him. Blood was dripping down his chin; the only things keeping him upright were the two Equalists that flanked him and sheer willpower. She thought: What would have happened if he hadn’t attacked Amon? She thought: after the Lieutenant attacked, Amon left himself open and Mako hit him. She thought: he could have killed me by ordering the bolas thrown with such force that I fell out the window. She thought: everyone is still watching, and I can’t fight my way out of the Equalists right now. Even with Amon revealed, there were still the mecha-tanks and the foot soldiers and the Lieutenant, still holding his yantoks despite his injuries.

She nodded. “I surrender.”

“Korra, no!” Mako yelled.

“It’s ok,” she said, drawing herself up to face the Lieutenant coldly. “If the Equalists are still going to try and rule, it’s better that I’m there to watch what they’re doing.” 

“Good,” said the Lieutenant, and collapsed.

The two equalists at his side caught him before he hit the floor; his yantoks fell from his limp hands, clattering at his feet. Korra’s first instinct was to run toward him and heal him, but some of the equalists jumped in front before she could go more than a few steps. 

“I’m not going to hurt him!” Korra said. 

The equalists did not drop their weapons. “As if!” said the chirpy one, her eyes narrowing under the goggles. “You’ve done enough damage! He’s dying. You need to go down the cells and be a well-behaved hostage!”

“I know he’s dying! He got hurt fighting Amon! He helped us defeat him, and I want to pay him back.” 

The equalists all looked at each other, then at the Lieutenant. “We knew he got hurt fighting Amon; that’s why we’re not taking you down on sight. Can you heal him? I think a waterbender could fix what a waterbender caused.” asked a taller one, a man.

“Yes! Wait, no.” Korra wilted. “Amon took my waterbending, so I can’t heal him.”

“Should we even be thinking about bending?” asked an Equalist. 

“I don’t think anyone else will be able to help, given what he said Amon did. Organ damage is hard to diagnose and harder to heal. We’ll blame the Avatar if anyone says we were hypocrites later,” said the tallest one, who crossed her arms. “Satsa, go the van ready. Kohl, Rama, take the firebender down to prison. Tarra, Zabi, Eda, you’re with me and the Avatar. Everyone else, I want everyone to know what’s going on; tell Meilan what’s going on, she’s our default third in command. If we’re not careful, the city’s going to panic and we’re not ending today in riots. Amon may destroy everything he touches, but we don’t! Avatar, you’re coming with us.”

“Got it,” Korra said. She felt a knot forming in the pit of her stomach, but she’s doing this. “Mako, stay calm! I’ll be back.”

“Be careful, Korra!” Mako yelled from the floor; she waved back to him, then grabbed the Lieutenant’s yantoks and followed the tall Equalist.

“My brother works at an apothecary with a waterbender healer. He’s one of the best in the city; they’ll heal anyone for a price.” Korra could hear the grimace under the mask of the tallest equalist. “I haven’t contacted my brother since I joined the Equalists. I think that’ll get us price of admission.”

“He misses you?”

“Like a tigershark misses meat. But if we can save the Lieutenant, it’s worth dealing with him. I don’t intend to let anyone die today.” Tall equalist glanced at Korra; her eyes narrowed through the goggles. “If you hurt him to try and stop our coup, I’ll have your head. And if my brother doesn’t work, I expect you to charm his pansy waterbender into doing something because this is your fault.”

Korra nodded. “Understood. Let’s get him to that apothecary before he dies.”

~*~*~

They get there in time.

Korra didn’t see what tall Equalist did to get her brother to let them in; she stayed in the back of the van, watching as the Equalists worried around their fallen comrade. It was bizarre to see them so human; even more so the Lieutenant, who was gone from mustache’d villain to - she wasn’t sure what. Limp and colorless and still.

She was there for the part when the van doors slammed open and the healer hopped in. She only caught a glimpse of dark skin and silvery hair before the healer barked, “Everyone out! I’ll need space!” He shooed them out with one plastic-gloved hand, and he’d pulled water from his hip flask in what Korra recognized as a basic diagnosis form before she was pulled away.

Tall equalist was pointedly ignoring her brother, who was short and angular and pale and sputtered like a broken Satomobile. When he saw Korra, he puttered over like some badly driven boat, his orange jacket puffed behind him like some badly-made sail. 

“You’re the Avatar!”

“Yes?”

“What are you waiting for?” said the brother, and grabbed her by the wrist. “She told me you lost your bending, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still be useful! We’ve got people with burns coming in from all over the neighborhood thanks to all the falling airships and bending can’t do everything. Come on!”

Korra was too shocked by his interruption to even think about protesting until the middle of a lesson on how to treat burn wounds; she was too busy working to comment on it then, and she stayed there well into the night, thoughts on lost bending and Amon’s disappearance taken over by, one by one, giving medical treatment to the people of Republic City.

~*~*~

Lieutenant wrote memos from his bed.

Despite Amon’s little stunt, the Equalists still had the support of the majority of the populace. They needed a leader, and Lieutenant was already in charge of a good deal of Equalist paperwork; running the city was a lot like running the Equalists if he didn’t think about it too hard. All Lieutenant had to do was ignore the catastrophe that would ensue if he put a foot wrong and run the tightrope. 

The Avatar had insisted that she be allowed to keep an eye on him at all times. He ignored her and the waterbender who came in twice a day for his post-op healing as much as possible; as much as he wanted to report that he had ruthlessly destroyed her insults, he usually ignored her. He was too busy to think of something clever in return.

There weren’t enough hours in the day for what he needed to do. Make sure that trade stayed open as long as possible. Create a squad of equalists to act as the police, and make the telephone lines get back up in a reasonable amount of time. The United Forces were closing in on Republic City; the Equalists could fight them, but they’d run out of food from the blockades setting in from both land and sea before they could defeat every soldier that the UF brought. He was trying to think of everything he could, everything he’s capable of, but.

But that was still with him falling asleep at the wheel. Tea and waterbenders could only do so much; his body’s still catching up to the strain of one crushed kidney, a burst appendix, sprains everywhere and enough bruises to make him look like a child’s watercolor. When he managed sleep, he tossed and turned. He saw Amon’s fist clench in his dreams; when he would wake up, he’d double check he was on the ground. His body fought him with every meeting attended around his bed; he’d taken to napping through healings.

The city would be surrounded soon. Food could still be smuggled in, but people would go hungry. The city was in no state for a siege. Amon, when he was – the former equalist policy had involved bloodless strikes. Knock out but do not harm permanently. Only kill those who have killed. Don’t create the damage the benders did; keep the moral high ground. And though Amon was a traitor, a fraud, a monster - 

The poorest of the city were non-benders. They would suffer and starve before benders even started to be affected.

He could not allow a siege.

Between checking in on Hiroshi in the hospital and making sure the few rioting benders didn’t cause too much collateral damage, Lieutenant started to write surrender terms. 

~*~*~

The first copy of the surrender came five days after the Avatar lost her bending. 

Bumi grinned. As a general, he didn’t get say in the treaty – but he did get to spy on the Equalist terms getting whittled down. He was not a man who held grudges, but there was something nice about seeing them getting taken down a peg after they attacked his baby brother. 

They’d had so much potential, too. 

~*~*~

“You.”

The silver-haired waterbender ignored him, still cleaning up; the nurse in orange, however, saw Lieutenant's crooked finger and walked over. “You called, Whiskers?”

Lieutenant grimaced at the nickname. “Give this to your sister,” he said, and handed him a piece of paper. 

The nurse took it and put it in his pocket. “Righty then. You’re lucky she likes your group so much, Whiskers; it’s free for you.”

“Good.” 

Korra peered after the duo as they left; the nurse snapped and made the candle flame she was meditating on jump, and she scowled. “You can’t tell her yourself? You’re leaving it to Mr. Tigershark?”

“I don’t know where she is, and he gravitates to her like a magnet.” Lieutenant snapped open the latest copy of the surrender terms from the UF and started writing notes on it; they were nearing the final version. “Unless you’d prefer to be my messenger girl?”

“As if! What were you even sending her?”

“She deserves a day off.”

“Yeesh, you guys take full attendance seriously, don’t you?”

“The Equalists were a fully funded group thanks to Hiroshi Sato; we recompensed our chi-blockers for the dangers they faced.”

“You mean, you paid them?”

He resisted the urge to smack sense into the Avatar. “Did you think they volunteered? Not all of us could live civilian lives. How do you think we became strong enough to take the city?”

She pouted at him. He facepalmed. “Avatar, I’m not telling you how we did it. I’m busy actually running the city.”

“You could always give it to Tenzin.”

“I’m not handing the city over to him for free. If the United Forces want their city back, they have to get through me legally.” He jotted a note on the reversal of Tarrlok’s anti-Equalist laws. “The surrender is almost formalized. Wait one more day and you’ll have ‘saved’ the city from the Equalists.”

Saved the city. He stared down at the surrender terms, bitterly smiling. They were asking for financial papers, to take over the Equalist underground lair, and to have those who joined the Equalists identified for future reference. Not useful for rebuilding the city or protecting it, but great for making it look like they were. It would be too bad if the documents on money and membership vanished and the Equalists sank back into their civilian lives or used the safehouses no one knew about yet. If they still had access to their bank accounts in the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation. How awful if some idiot firebender helped his sister make it look like the disappearance was bender sabotage, not Equalist theft; how terrible if she spread the word to the others to go underground, as it were, and remake the organization without him. 

He may have been second in command, but the Equalists had many leaders under him. They were too big to rely on just him and Amon. They would step up. He would play Amon’s favorite role, the martyr, and take the heat while the organization rose from the ashes. They didn’t need someone who had joined for _Amon_ \- 

His pencil snapped in two. He put it and the surrender terms down and held his face until he stopped shaking.

What use was an Equalist still hung up on the loss of Amon?


	2. Chapter 2

“A firebender attacked our headquarters. Most of our records went up in flames,” the Lieutenant said, staring straight ahead. “Which is why the United Forces are getting our back up records, not our official ones. I apologize for your inconvenience.”

“Of course,” said Iroh. The Lieutenant had been nothing but polite through the negotiations, which Iroh respected. “Do you know where we can find the other Equalists?”

“I’ve told you where every safe house I’m aware of in town is,” the Lieutenant said. He continued to stare at the wall, his face a mask of calm. “I can’t replace our old roll sheets; I was never in charge of them. I’m afraid I can’t be more help to you.”

His instance that he didn’t know where the other Equalists were was also respectable; it just happened to be annoying. It was too convenient. Their records were burned in 'sabotage' the night before the surrender? Really? And there was no sign of anyone in goggles and gloves in the city. The Equalist headquarters below the city were abandoned. The mecha-tanks stood abandoned at their posts. 

A commander protected his men, and the Equalists had mostly left the civilians alone. Iroh wasn’t going to push him too hard. Others, later, would do it, but it would give the Equalists time to hide. 

“Of course. I have one more question before I go,” Iroh said. He pulled out an envelope and opened it to remove the pictures inside. “Our fleet found the remains of a boat and some corpses in the water on the way in. We need you to identify one of the bodies.”

The Lieutenant’s eyes widened. For the first time, his gaze moved, flitted to the photos; with stilted movement, he picked them up and went through them one by one.

~*~*~

It was him.

Of course it was him. Was he expecting Amon to waltz in, mask on, and declare the revelation un-cancelled? Lieutenant had seen the tail end of Amon’s flight, the fear and anger in his eyes before he’d dived; why should he hope for Amon to return?

It wasn’t the face in the photo that told him whose corpse it was; he had seen Amon’s face all of once, when he’d watched him flee from the pro-bending arena. Though that face, that moment, had seared in his memory, that wasn’t it. It was the bruises over Amon’s ears from where the string of the mask had rubbed during battle. His hands, untouched by the shrapnel. The curve of his neck. The scars that wound down his neck, that he'd help treat with his own hands.

He didn’t even look dead in most of the photos. The explosion had barely touched his face. It was only in the charred flesh that peeked from his back, how his arms had twisted and broken, it – how did he look so peaceful in death, the edge of a smile on his face? 

Why was he dead?

“It’s Amon,” Lieutenant said, and his voice broke.

The general was kind enough not to comment on it. “Thank you for your time,” he said, and pulled the photos from Lieutenant’s unresisting hands. 

Lieutenant didn’t watch him leave. He lay back and looked at the ceiling through tear-blurred eyes.

The revolution was over. 

~*~*~

The Lieutenant was settled in a small apartment near the Council Building. He was allowed copies of his book collection at the Equalist headquarters. He was not allowed a copy of his workshop. A guard from the Order of the White Lotus and a guard from the United Forces stayed there, one by his side and one at the only door.

The Avatar left for the Southern Water Tribe to attempt to regain her bending. Eventually, the newspapers reported that she had regained her bending and would return to the city to likewise return bending to Amon’s victims. The Lieutenant ripped that headline to shreds before he turned to the crossword. He never spoke to either guard. He drew machinery in the corners of his newspapers.

He slept and grew thin. He watched the city out his window. He dreamed of masks.

~*~*~

The headlines read EQUALISTS STRIKE AGAIN! ARE THE STREETS SAFE?

“The papers are making it out to be more than it is,” Iroh said, nose buried in newsprint. “No one’s died.”

“Did you expect them not to be upset?” Bumi said, peering over Iroh’s shoulders. “The Fire Nation just invaded all over again! We’re lucky no one’s died yet.”

“We came to save them from the Equalists,” Iroh said. “I thought they’d be happy.”

“It’s never that easy, nephew.” Bumi bopped Iroh on the head. “You’ve never been part of an invading force before. The Equalists, despite everything, were popular with a good chunk of the population and have stayed in their hearts!”

“Will they if they keep attacking our soldiers?”

“They haven’t lost the hope of the people so far!” Bumi said. “There were people at the jail this morning trying to bail out the Equalists involved.”

“Did they let them go?”

“The one is being kept in ‘protective custody’. The other’s not at the jail,” Bumi corrected. “She’s up at the hospital. She hit her head and hasn’t woken up yet.”

Iroh winced. “I thought we told the soldiers to not harm other people in fights, if possible.”

“They’re claiming self-defense,” said Bumi. His hands tightened on the chair’s back. “Just like the three other fights they’ve gotten into since we got to Republic City.”

“You suspect something.”

“The unit under Twaeji has been having problems for a while. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about trouble, though Twaeji has protested otherwise,” Bumi said. He smiled – or, at least, he bared his lips. “I think I’m going to go out for a stroll, nephew. You know how I enjoy port cities. See the sights, hit up a bar or two, meet someone I can introduce to my wife, see how our soldiers are doing. You know how your grandfather feels about people bringing dishonor on our navy.”

“Do you want some calming tea before you go?”

“I’ve already had some very exciting coffee,” Bumi said. He loosened the collar on his uniform. “Have fun with the new council delegates! They talk as much as your grandfather does!”

Iroh groaned. 

~*~*~

The headlines read EQUALISTS STRIKE AGAIN! ARE THE STREETS SAFE?

Lieutenant read it twice, the story three times, stared at the pictures next to it. He knew those faces – two chiblockers. Tall man, former thief who saw the light, called Kohl, arrested for illegally chi-blocking. Tall woman, good with machines, name of Sri. The woman who had gotten him to a doctor quickly. 

In the hospital. In a coma. 

He groaned. His doctor, the silver-haired waterbender, tsked him. “If you don’t like the papers so much, maybe you should take a break from them. You only look miserable after you read them.”

Lieutenant glared. Kaja was far younger than his graying hair would imply; he told the female guards that it was a gift from the moon spirit. He could have been anywhere between twenty and forty; he wore make up like a dandy ‘because it cheers the patients’ and had a pleasant enough bedside manner for a bender. Which was to say, he alternated between mocking and ignoring him.

This time, Kaja took the newspaper. “You’re only going to give yourself an ulcer. You need to relax.”

“I can’t do much else in here,” Lieutenant said; he curled his arms around his knees. 

“Then enjoy it. It won’t do you any good to make yourself suffer needlessly,” Kaja said. He finished packing his suitcase. “I’m done for the day. You’re recovering marvelously; you won’t be doing backflips for a few months, but you won’t need to go back on dialysis.”

“Thank you, doctor,” Lieutenant muttered. His guard let Kaja out of the bedroom and then returned to silence; he ignored the sound of a dime novel being pulled out and stared at his knees.

The revolution was over. And yet – the streets were still dangerous for nonbenders to walk on. He’d told the Equalists to stay underground until it was calmer, but that wasn’t enough for some. He’d told them. This wasn’t his fight anymore. This wasn’t his fight – 

“What would I have to do,” Lieutenant asked his guard, “to get fifteen minutes outside?”


	3. Chapter 3

The streets of Republic City were only slightly less confusing with a map. The original streets had been drawn on a grid, but the closer they got to the outlying hamlets, the closer it got to chaos.

Bumi grinned and pocketed his map. Dad had always followed the wind; Mom followed her heart; Uncle Sokka his instincts; Aunt Toph the ground; Uncle Zuko his honor; but Bumi took after his Aunt Ty Lee and followed the smoke. 

The attacks in town were mostly near the factories that were wedged between bender and non-bender districts. Smoke decorated the horizon; Bumi followed the smoke.

~*~*~

Lieutenant left the apartment with a bitter taste in his mouth, both figurative and literal. Back when the Equalists were starting, it took more than a simple sex act to break out of jail.

On the other hand, when the Equalists were starting, he ended up coming home with something broken at least once a week, so it was better to count blessings and try not to think about it. In the grand scale of things, it wasn’t even in the top hundred things he’s done that he’d be ashamed of later. 

(That was what he had been doing for the last month: realizing just what he’d been doing for a bloodbender, realizing what that would mean in context, and cringing. Doing something for the Equalists was much more pleasant than doing it while Councilman Tarrlok's brother, the bender, pulled the wool over his eyes.)

He’d hate to be in that guard’s shoes when he didn’t return. As of now, though, he had found an alley and was changing into the old blue exterminator’s uniform he’d hidden in his bag. It sagged on him; he knew that he’d lost weight after the surgery, jail, Amon, but it hadn’t fully clicked until he he notched his belt one notch tighter than he usually did. All muscle, probably, plus that damn kidney. And his appendix. That wasn’t even a dignified injury! Who had an appendix to burst in a fight? (Someone too poor or too busy to have it removed before.)

On the upside, he looked so much like some wendigo stumbling out of a Water Tribe nightmare that it would be hard to recognize him. The press had caught him when he still had a broken nose and a plethora of bruises from breaking his last fall with his face, but those had faded to blend green and yellow with his sallow skin. 

Sri was, if he remembered right, sharing an apartment with, um. The short woman who had wanted to toss the Avatar out a window. Rama, that was it, Rama who had a grandfather. That was near the factories where the bender and non-bender districts met. 

He picked up a discarded pole and tested it's strength, checked that it would be of a good length if split in two; once satisfied, he put his ‘walking stick’ to the ground and proceeded to flee house arrest.

~*~*~

His uniform would be too conspicuous. He would be too noticeable. So Bumi had dropped it for a foot soldier’s uniform, a ratty grey trenchcoat and a fedora, which he thought was pretty snazzy. Dad would’ve thought it was cool.

It was totally cool.

Dad had loved Republic City and the United Republic when he was alive. Bumi wasn’t so sure he’d love it now. Dad had hoped that Republic City and the rest of the former colonies would graduate into a fully-fledged country by the time his successor came of age. Instead, they were still tightly under the thumb of the three nations plus one on account of – oh, lots of reasons. They had trouble controlling their people. They needed help with their economy. They were constantly under the attack by the triads and, more recently, the Equalists. They had riots, which was definitely because the United Republic wasn’t ready to rule itself and definitely wasn’t because the current economic sanctions focusing on increasing profitable exports had created a system where it was increasingly difficult to get a decent wage, especially if you weren’t a bender. 

(Which was not to say that all non-benders were forced into pauperdom. But with all the nations of the world hungry for the innards of Republic City mines, it was easier to hire a few well-trained earthbenders, waterbenders and firebenders to refine ore than to hire 200 men and buy machines to do it.)

Bumi was pretty sure that Dad would have wanted Republic City to grow up, just like his other kids. Bumi had hoped that it would happen naturally, like how Tenzin had finally gotten hitched without Bumi or Kya having to step in at all. Not that he’d have stepped in before checking that Tenzin actually wanted hitching, of course, but an older brother had to keep an eye on his baby siblings.

Which was the problem. Tenzin almost died, Pema almost died for completely different reasons, and the kids had been through hell and back. Republic City had just weathered an invasion and was weathering a second, even if it was from the countries that governed it, and was no closer to gaining independence than it was when Tenzin got married. Bumi had no doubt that Tenzin was a good councilman when he tried, but considering all the pies Kya was finding with Tarrlok’s fingerprints cooling in, and with the increasingly despotic headlines that had been coming from Republic City that month before the Equalist coup –

Well, Kya was up north finding out just how much of the Northern Water Tribe’s bakery Tarrlok had stolen slices of. Why they hadn’t recalled him so fast his head would spin after that stunt with the mass arrests, especially after the Fire Nation’s mass kidnapping of Water Tribespersons during the Hundred Year War – ok, Tarrlok had revealed himself as a bloodbender and gotten kidnapped the day after, and he’d only announced that he was planning to arrest anyone who he thought could be an Equalist and that damn curfew barely a few days, but still. Something was rotten in the north. Who had approved Tarrlok’s plans? And were they the ones keeping Republic City from growing up?

He caught a reflection of his face in a shop window and grimaced. He looked like a hungover lionmoose. He messed his hair until the shopkeeper inside had to hide a grin, and he grinned back, bowed and continued on. 

Bumi needed to stop perseverating on politics. He was here on orders from She Herself, the Fire Lord aka His Wife to go make peace and put a boot in the behinds of anyone who was bringing dishonor on the Fire Nation and their former colonies. This included Twaeji and his unit of manchild nobles who thought that a uniform meant they could pick fights with the civvies and get away with murder, or at least concussions. He had been advised to deal with them tactfully, which meant that if he didn’t do this by the book he’d dishonor the throne; as much as he wanted to sit them down and use them for target practice, this meant that he needed to find a legal case for it. By the book. 

Or he could find one of them, they'd pick a fight with the High Consort of the Fire Lord, and he'd let the fun go from there. Their lawyer was throwing up more barriers than a besieged castle, but he’s sure that a suit pressed by the royal family would get through faster than the others pressed so far, as unfair as that was. Stupid honor.

But the Fire Nation was slowly reclaiming their honor by not messing around with the other countries, by playing by the rules, by being as lawful and good as possible, and by not going in and punching things - unless they were the High Consort because no one knew what that guy was thinking and he was Aang’s son, anyway, which Bumi thought was a fine exchange. He liked being his wife’s weapon of choice. A steel fan could do as much as a knife or a flame if wielded correctly.

It was too bad about the Equalists. They could have been a good weapon – no, a crowbar, as it were, to pry open the United Republic’s independence. They had a good point, and they were organized, efficient. They just _had_ to make a sharp right into radio serial villainy, besiege the city and kidnap his family, didn’t they?

It was too bad Amon was gone. Bumi wanted to give him a piece of his mind. As it was, the only Equalist they had in custody was that Lieutenant who remained as helpful as a glass hammer. Bumi would just have to think of something.

He was suddenly aware of a silence around him. He’d turned thoughtlessly into an alley; the sounds of Satomobiles were deafened by the walls around him. And, ahead of him, were two muscular men in dark green and khaki and wreathed in grins, like piranhashrews.

Bumi grinned.

~*~*~

Lieutenant knocked on the door twice. “I’m coming, you jerk, so gimme a second!” There was a sound of locks unlocking; the door slammed open an inch, ranged by the chain-lock still on. A round-faced woman glared over the chain, limp curls framing her face. “Who goes there?”

“It’s me, Rama,” said Lieutenant. 

She peered at him for a long moment before recognition dawned. “Lieut – what are you doing? Get in here now before someone sees you!” She undid the chain and yanked him in by the shirt. He stumbled in and regained his balance as she locked the door in triplicate. “I thought you were in jail! You said you were going to jail so we could all regroup! What are you doing out of jail?”

“It’s not jail, it’s house arrest.”

“Whatever! Sit down at the table, I’m making you some bibimbap. Skeletons look better’n you do.”

Lieutenant sat down. Trying to resist would be like trying to resist a falling building. The Equalists took care of each other, and the only person allowed to skip out on being fussed over had been buried without a mask. 

“What are you doing out here? They’re gonna be looking for you, sir.” Plates clanged against each other from the tiny kitchen. “Granddad remembers what it was like when the Fire Nation was still here. He’s been having a cow and spiderkittens with them back! He’s been scared that I’m gonna get arrested just for walking around like Kohl was, and he doesn't even know I'm an Equalist! And that’s not even with what happened with Sri –“

“What happened with Sri?”

“Is that why you’re out here? ” Lieutenant nodded. “You idiot!” Lieutenant winced. Rama looked like she was going to snap the plate between her hands. “She was trying to defend Kohl and the minute she started chi-blocking, she got a chunk of concrete to the head! It may have been excessive force but chi-blocking’s still banned! We haven’t got a case! And with you breaking out, it’s gonna come out in the papers like we’re trying another coup! They’ll lock you back up so tight that you can’t break out when we really need you!”

His head had been sinking throughout the whole spiel, and it finally made contact with his hands. Lieutenant rubbed his temples. “You’re right. I wasn’t thinking.”

“Just cause she helped save your life doesn’t mean you had to come help,” Rama sniffed. She put down the plate and wiped her eyes. “You dummy. You told us to go on without you, and here you are.”

“Yes,” he said. “I’m sorry.” There wasn’t much else he could say.

He sat in silence until Rama slammed a hot bowl full of vegetables and egg and rice in front of him. “If you’re gonna get up to your chin in trouble, may as well do it on a full stomach. Granddad’s not gonna be back from work until nightfall, so you can take your time. If I’m gonna be in a gang while he’s at work, I may as well go all the way and keep the heads well fed.” She pulled chopsticks out of a drawer, then a napkin, and tossed them to him. “It’s not like I can do much more right now; Meilan and the others are still figuring out what to do next, so we foot goons got nothing to do but wait. So eat.”

Lieutenant nodded and picked up his chopsticks. If he was here, he should take her hospitality while he could. It wasn’t as if he’d be able to come back.

~*~*~

“Put your hands up,” said the one man, “and give us your money and we won’t hurt you.”

“I’m just a soldier off-duty,” Bumi said, shrugging. “I don’t have much in the way of money.”

The other man laughed. “As if! The United Forces are rolling in dough! You oughta share with us in the city so we can keep up with you buying up all the good things in town.”

Bumi fingered one of his steel fans. “I’d prefer to do so in a way that wasn’t flat out robbery.”

“Too bad,” said the one gangster, and he slammed a hand into the alley wall to summon a brick and flung it at Bumi. 

Bumi rolled, dodging, and pulled out his fans as he jumped back to his feet. The other gangster slammed his feet into the ground, lunging at Bumi; Bumi jumped on the ground as it shuddered toward him in a wave, blocking another flung brick with a fan. He ducked a flung punch and brought the a fan into one’s stomach, winding him, before ducking out of the alley and into the new road.

There were a lot more gangsters.

“Just my luck,” Bumi muttered, and rammed an elbow into the second gangster’s face. The other gangsters were standing, and one of them had floated up a chunk of rock the size of his face. “I don’t suppose you’d care to surrender to me?” 

The rock hurtled toward his face. Bumi laughed and dodged, running into the fray with fans open.


	4. Chapter 4

Lunch had been a quiet affair. Mostly Lieutenant had inquired politely into Rama’s personal life, Rama had asked him about house arrest, and they’d both avoided the masked elephantboar in the room. 

And now, as Lieutenant left the apartment, he had to ask himself: what now? 

He wasn’t going to be of any use getting Sri out of the hospital, or Kohl out of jail, or any help to any of the other Equalists who had gotten arrested or hurt since the occupation started. He wasn’t going to be much help rebuilding the organization, especially considering that his last good idea was 'break out of house arrest over some stupid thing that the Equalists had under control anyway.' He’d given over the Equalists to the best people they had; he was more useful as a martyr and a bargaining chip. The best he could do, at this point, was to go turn himself back in and hope that he hadn’t screwed things up worse than they already were. 

That was the plan. It lasted until he went down Fifty-fourth Street and Morning Bloom and saw the fight.

Members of the Great Quakes, by the look of them, eight, though at least four had been knocked out by the man in the middle. Tat man was wild-haired, wearing the remains of a trenchcoat and red shirt, and being surrounded by earthbending triad members hadn’t wiped the smile off his face. Unarmed, it looked like, and Lieutenant knew the man looked familiar. It was there in the back of his head, but he couldn’t place it. His own hand was tight and twisting on his walking stick.

Wild hair dodged bricks with ease, flipping over an upraised concrete wall, and his hands flew; the gangster cried out as his arms fell to his side, limp – 

Chi-blocking was still illegal. Only Equalists taught it, that was it, another chi-blocker – Lieutenant broke his walking stick in two against a wall and ran into the fight.

~*~*~

He’d wedged his fans into the wall to keep the most dangerous of the bending gangsters stuck in place, and so Bumi had switched from Aunt Suki’s Kyoshi Warrior fighting style to Aunt Ty Lee’s two-hit knock-out style, dropping the next gangster with ease. Five down, three to go!

“Chi-blocker!”

The next brick was sharpened to a point, and Bumi barely dodged it going through his eye. The next brick was just as sharp, and Bumi rolled out of the way and – chi-blocking meant Equalist, Equalists were the world’s current bogeyman, and despite Bumi’s frustration, they hadn’t been able to whet out adequate punishment against soldiers who picked fights against ‘Equalists,’ real or not. Which meant that he was fair game for gangsters, too. No one would blame them for killing a chi-blocker. 

The pointed bricks didn’t stop, and Bumi dodged. He couldn’t get his fans back unless he wanted to let that idiot who broke the ground into so much quicksand back into the fight, and he was really missing having Iroh or his soldiers to back him up. But Iroh was busy back at headquarters, and he had no soldiers, and so Bumi would finish the fight he walked into.

 _Smack!_ Wood against flesh took down one of the gangsters; Bumi saw a flash of blue before one of the remaining two gangsters turned to the newcomer, and Bumi used the flicker of distraction in the gangster still tossing pointy bricks at him to his advantage.

He charged. Bumi took one brick to his arm, a sharp and awful pain, but he took the man down and kicked him in the solar plexus to make sure he stayed there. He then walked over and hit a few pressure points to knock out the fan-trapped bender, then pulled his steel fans out of the wall.

The other man stood; he’d shoved the sticks into his belt and had been knocking out fallen gangsters with his own chi-blocking. “What are you waiting for?” he said. “Let’s get out of here.” He gestured and headed down another alley.

Aunt Ty Lee always said that where there was smoke, there was fire, and that’s how she could find Aunt Azula. Bumi decided that he’d, at least, found an ember, and followed.

They went down several alleys before the other man spoke. “What were you thinking? Soldiers almost killed the last chi-blocker who showed their face on the open streets! How did you think gangsters would react to it? Were you trying to get killed?”

Aunt Azula said that the best way to get information was to go along with whatever was going on. Never act surprised. Bumi said, “I wasn’t thinking.”

“You’re supposed to be laying low!”

Supposed to be laying low, a chiblocker, Bumi thought. An Equalist, then. And the other man was talking like he expected Bumi to listen to him, which suggested that he was authority. The last living head of the Equalists was in custody, and Bumi had no illusions that the Equalists had actually been dissolved, so this must be –

Wait, no. He’d seen the head of the Equalists a couple times, in the paper and watching his nephew interrogate. The face was sharper, thinner, and it didn’t look like it’d been recently used as a Satomobile racetrack by a bloodbender, but Bumi would know that unigi mustache anywhere. He just hadn’t expected it on the man who’d just saved his hide.

“I’m laying lower than you are, Lieutenant! What are you doing out of house arrest?”

The Lieutenant, as Bumi had correctly guessed, shot a glare that would wipe the smirk off a lesser man. “Going right back into it.”

“You broke out just to go back in? That’s pretty stupid.”

The Lieutenant turned red. Bumi grinned wider. “You’ve got to have a reason. Were you worried about the recent arrests going on?”

“Of course I am. Why else would I be out here?” 

Score, Bumi thought. “Not much point of giving yourself up in exchange for the Equalists if you leave! But if you gave yourself up to protect them, you must’ve been panicking at seeing them starting to get hurt.” The Lieutenant’s eyes lowered as Bumi continued. “But once people figure out you left, they’re going to jump to the wrong conclusion – ”

“And that’s why I’m going back now,” the Lieutenant finished. 

Bumi thought. He thought: if rumors of another Equalist coup show up, we’re going to have even more trouble than we have been having before. He thought: we’re both trying to stop the same thing. He thought: the Equalists could still be useful, with Amon gone and another leader in charge. Amon was a monolith, a monster, but this man was the kind of person who would break out of jail to protect one of his foot-soldiers. Not a great planner, but a good man. And malleable.

He thought: And if it does turn out he was going to hurt my brother and his family, I can still beat him up later. It’s still honor if it’s vengeance.

“You could do that,” Bumi said. “Or you could help me stop the attacks.”

The Lieutenant gave him a look. “And how are we going to stop them?”

“We’ll investigate ourselves and bring evidence to the United Forces high command,” Bumi said.

“And what makes you think that they’re not going to arrest us both on sight when we do that?” the Lieutenant said. “A chi-blocker and Amon’s right hand? They’d laugh us back to the cells.”

He thinks I’m a chi-blocker, Bumi thought, and filed that into useful information. “They wouldn’t because I’m General Bumi.”

The Lieutenant stopped walking and stared at him. Stared and stared. And then, like a great chasm opening in a cliff wall, he laughed.

Bumi wondered if he should feel insulted. It had probably been weeks since the man had had anything to laugh for, much less at, and so this was the result of all that bottled up pressure – but that didn’t mean he had to laugh so hard at the idea of Bumi being a general that his hat fell off.

He waited until the Lieutenant’s guffaws were subsiding and the man was leaning against a wall, wheezing, before adding: “It’s not that funny.” Bumi picked the Lieutenant’s fallen exterminator hat up with only the fainted aura of reproach.

The Lieutenant shook his head, suppressing the last of his giggling tremors as he accepted his hat and put it back on. “No, I know, it’s just – they’ll never believe you. It’d never work.”

“Why not?” They started walking again. Bumi’s announcement seemed to have broken the ice; the Lieutenant was grinning, and he had moved so they could walk side by side, not with the Lieutenant leading Bumi. Which. Well, the Lieutenant was still leading at the moment, but Bumi could actually watch him.

“First of all, you’re not nearly ugly enough,” the Lieutenant said. Bumi opened his mouth, but the Lieutenant continued, “Second, everyone knows that Bumi has a man or woman in every port despite that, and you don’t have that sheer animal magnetism.” 

“A man and a woman, and then some!” said Bumi, in protest of this unfair libel.

“And the Fire Lord, who is so busy between the harem the two of them have collected and her own country that she sent a councilperson who rolled over like a poodlepony for Tarrlok’s power trip,” the Lieutenant said. His smile turned bitter.

“That’s not fair. If the Fire Nation looked like it was trying to influence Republic City too much, it’d be accused of trying to steal the colonies back,” Bumi said, who had discussed this with the Fire Lord late into the night.

“Fair enough,” the Lieutenant said. “Though the invasion doesn’t do much to help, does it?”

“It’s making up for the earlier inaction,” Bumi said, who had had this discussion with the Fire Lord as well. “She couldn’t just let her brother-in-law and his family be threatened, much less let the Equalists keep the kidnapped council and the entire city. And the fleet’s only here until the new council is installed and the police and government are re-assembled.”

“It’s still not right.”

“I know,” said Bumi. “The old colonizer returns to put down the revolting colonies? It’s a bad idea. But the majority of the Water Tribe fleets were too far away and the Earth Kingdom’s still dealing with unrest at home, so the Fire Nation headed the United Forces here. We just have to hope the council is restored quickly so that there aren’t more attacks like the one we came here for.”

The Lieutenant laughed again; this laugh was as bitter as his smile. “See, that’s the third reason you can’t be Bumi. Why should a general come down to ground level to stop his own men from hurting civilians? Why would he care?”

Bumi didn’t take offense at that. The Lieutenant’s eyes were focused far away; Bumi didn’t guess at what he was thinking of because there were too many possibilities. The rivalry between the police and the Equalists stretched back to when they were only classified as a gang. And Amon had turned tail at the first sign of personal danger, despite how close they were to success…

He reached out and touched the Lieutenant’s shoulder; the Lieutenant flinched out of his reverie and looked over to Bumi. “Where are we going now?” Bumi asked.

The Lieutenant pointed at Bumi’s bloody arm. “That needs treatment. I’d have done it already if I could, but I can’t. We’re going somewhere that can fix it.”

“I’ll follow your lead,” Bumi said. “You were heading there already, am I right? First medical help, then house arrest?”

“Of course.”

“Good! Once we get there, we can discuss what to do next! Even if you don’t believe I’m General Bumi, you can believe that I can get us uniforms so we can sneak into a base, don’t you?”

The Lieutenant’s smirk returned. “It’d explain that ridiculous thing you’re wearing.”

“It’s not ridiculous!” Bumi grinned back.

“It is.”

“Like the gas mask and bandanas were anything outside outrageous.”

“They were useful and they didn’t turn you into a bullseye on any terrain that’s not a volcano.”

“It adds to the animal-magnetism-lover-on-each-port charisma,” Bumi said and waggled his eyebrows. The Lieutenant laughed. 

~*~*~

The arrival of the new council members had gone smoothly. Iroh was glad for that. Two from the Water Tribes, one from the Earth Kingdom, one from the Fire Nation. Tenzin would be back in a few days with to represent the Air Nomads and then the council would be properly back. He’d sent them to their respective rooms with a small group of guards – couldn’t be too careful, right?

The Lieutenant had gone missing; the guard who had allowed it was in hot water, and he’d sent for the physician who had been treating him for the last few weeks to come in. He might know where he was hiding. 

Bumi hadn’t come back yet, but it had only been a few hours since he’d left. It was only if he was gone longer than three days or if buildings started exploding that Iroh started to worry about his uncle. Bumi could take care of himself.


	5. Chapter 5

“It’s usually open,” the Lieutenant said. 

Bumi stared at the CLOSED sign on the apocathary. “Do you think they’ll open up if we ring the bell?”

The Lieutenant shrugged and rang the doorbell. 

Footsteps clattered behind the door. The door opened, and Bumi relaxed up until the man in orange who opened it decked the Lieutenant in the stomach, then kneed his nose as he doubled over. The nurse then stepped back and shifted into a spinning kick, sparks forming as his tinder-lined shoe left the ground, and Bumi caught his foot and yanked the smaller man over his shoulder before anything more than a small puff of fire could smack into the Lieutenant’s chest.

“Hey! Put, put, put me down, you Fire Nation failure philanderizing fallback – put me down right now! Don’t go in!”

Bumi went into the apocathary and held the door open until the Lieutenant could stagger in. “You alright?”

“Just a bloody nose,” the Lieutenant said and collapsed into a chair. “My shirt’s made of flame-retardant material.”

Bumi put the struggling man on the counter, shoving him down by the shoulders. “What’s the big idea?”

“What’s my big idea?” The man in orange puffed up like a pufferbadger; even his hair rose with static. He pointed over Bumi’s shoulder at the Lieutenant. “What’s his big idea?! First his stupid Equalism puts my sister in the hospital, and then my boss gets dragged off on suspicion of helping him with a break out! I’ll turn him in and bathe in the yuans of the reward once they figure out what it is!”

“Calm down,” Bumi said.

“I’m not calming down!”

“Kifa,” said the Lieutenant. “I’m turning myself in later.”

That deflated the man. “Good. Good. Fine. Good man.” Kifa said, and his gaze flipped to Bumi. “You, flameo. The resident waterbender’s MIA on account of he’s being asked if he helped the unagi escape, but I’m handy with disinfectant and bandages. Sit yourself down. I’ll take it out of the reward for turning the unagi in to the other lobsterrobins.”

Bumi let him go; Kifa flipped off the counter and behind it, springing up to push a curtain of herbs out of the way of some bandages, then popping onto his toes to grab disinfectants. Bumi sighed and sat down next to the Lieutenant.

“He’s the brother of the girl in the paper?”

“Sri? Yes. She found treatment for me just after the incident with Amon,” the Lieutenant explained. “Most hospitals rely on waterbenders, so they weren’t taking Equalists until they knew no one would have their bending removed afterwards. So they took me here.”

“Did you know her well?”

“No. We talked once, but I was heavily medicated then. She took security duty outside my room until the last day of the coup.” The Lieutenant looked down. “I had not expected to see her again.”

Kifa sat in front of Bumi and shoved up his sleeve so he could see the entirety of the wounded arm, then set to treatment as the men talked. 

“Is that why you only waited until now to break out? Since there have been arrests going on before now.”

“I wasn’t sure if the arrests were of Equalists or not. I didn't know everyone in the organization. Besides, it was better for them if I stayed locked up.”

“Until you ran off.” The Lieutenant’s face scrunched up, and Bumi slapped his back. “Not everyone’s capable of staying put for their own good! You managed a lot better than I would have! Besides, it’s totally consistent for you!”

“Consistent?” asked the Lieutenant, with the tone of a man who knew the light at the end of the tunnel was the Train of Disappointment.

“You are the man who tried to attack a psychic bloodbender without hesitating, attempted to jump a polar bear dog after getting tossed over a house, lead a charge against an island staffed by the Order of the White Lotus – “

The Lieutenant groaned.

“ – helped lead an attack against a dozen metalbender cops, the Avatar and Tenzin, attacked the Avatar on top of a very fragile roof and eventually got shoved off it, attacked the Avatar a couple other times –“

“Yes, I’m reckless. I understand.”

“You’re emotionally charged!” Bumi corrected, and lightly punched the Lieutenant on the shoulder. “It’s alright! I have lots of relatives who do that! That’s why we’re making sure those soldiers who attacked Sri get brought to justice before you go back. So that this isn’t a blemish on your record – ow!”

Kifa had scraped with his cotton ball of disinfectant too hard; a grin split his face, his green eyes lighting up. “You’re going to help her?”

“We can’t do much. She’ll still be arrested for chi-blocking when she’s awake,” Lieutenant said. 

“But we can make sure it doesn’t happen again,” said Bumi.

Kifa considered this. “And the culprits will be punished?”

“As best we can.”

“Will you kill them?”

That question came from a face entirely too cheerful for it. Bumi found the effect disconcerting. He pushed Kifa away gently before answering. “It’s not a capital offense.”

Kifa, as unerring as a tigershark scenting blood, switched his sickly green stare to the Lieutenant. “What about you? Are you happy to settle for that? Getting charges to stick on benders who attack nonbenders is like sticking magnets on a bearowl! Getting it to stick on a bunch of rich rotten soldier brats who got shipped in from the fanciest bits of the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom’s going to be like that bearowl is drunk and angry! A little vigilantism – ” 

The Lieutenant stood up against Kifa’s barrage. “The Equalists don’t kill if they don’t have to.”

Kifa laughed. “You’re kidding! Even if we’re ignoring what happened to the zeppelin cops and everyone around when those suckers landed, Amon was about to off the Air Nomads onstage and on live radio!” 

Bumi watched the Lieutenant’s face go stern and cold, like an ancient statue. “I cannot speak,” he said, practically spitting each word, “for Amon’s intentions, but he told us that he was going to remove their bending. No more. We would not follow a man who would harm children.”

“Oh, yes, because tying them up and traumatizing them in front of an audience is so much better –”

“It was necessary. We weren’t going to hurt them.”

“It was gloating!” Kifa said. “If he really wanted to get rid of airbending, he should have done it in private, where they couldn’t get rescued. Not that it did you all much good, since he turned tail and ran at the first sign of losing!”

Bumi let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding in and shoved Kifa’s head down gently. “That’s enough from a firebender wearing airbender colors.”

Kifa squeaked; like a switch flipping, his face went from smile to shriek. He grabbed his bandages and shoved them into Bumi’s face. “If you’re so smart, you can bandage yourself! I’m not putting up with this!” He popped onto his feet and stormed over the counter and into the back room, where rows of hanging herbs hid him.

“Emotionally charged,” Bumi muttered to himself, “like an electric eelshark.” He watched the herbs swing into stillness, then turned to the Lieutenant.

The Lieutenant was gripping the arms of the chair tight enough that the tendons in his hands were sticking out, and his nails were going white from pressing into the chair ends. He trembled. Bumi touched him on the shoulder and the stony rage drained from the Lieutenant’s face; now, he just looked tired. 

He looked at Bumi, then over at the hand on his shoulder. “You won’t be able to do that alone,” the Lieutenant said, and picked up the bandages on Bumi’s lap. “Give me your arm.”

Bumi knew better than to argue. He let the Lieutenant start bandaging him and focused on that; the man had nice hands, thin and long and calloused, and Bumi had gotten patched up enough times that he could tell if someone knew what they were doing with regards to first aid.

“Were you a nurse?” Bumi asked.

The Lieutenant smiled, shook his head. “A mechanic,” he said, “and an exterminator. But this was useful to learn.” 

Bumi watched the Lieutenant’s hands bandage expertly; he was efficient, and Bumi rather suspected that the too-firm grip was not of punishment but of protectiveness. Which was a little strange, coming from a man that Bumi figured was at least ten years his junior, but it fit the man. “I bet,” Bumi teased, “especially given how many times you got injured.”

Ok, that nail-dig was definitely of punishment, but it was worth it. “Anything in particular you mechanic’d?”

“This and that,” the Lieutenant said. “Why are you so interested?”

“I’m trying to convince you I have the Bumi animal magnetism by seductively asking about your interests.”

“If you were Bumi, I’d have been arrested by now,” the Lieutenant said, eyes never leaving Bumi’s arm, “for escaping house arrest while being a nonbender and an Equalist, so you can stop pretending.”

“If I’m not Bumi, then you’re running around with a liar.”

“A chi-blocker with a bad sense of humor.”

“You’re not very bright, are you,” Bumi said, and the Lieutenant’s expression darkened. “Just because I know pressure points doesn’t mean I’m one of your men.”

“We’re the only ones who teach it in Republic City,” the Lieutenant said, and taped the top of the bandage closed. "And even if you're not one of us, I couldn't let you get killed for using our techniques."

“Got it,” Bumi said. He tested the bandages, smiled, and looked back up at the Lieutenant. “How’s your nose? Did he break it?”

“It’s fine,” the Lieutenant said, blinking in surprise. “I’ve taken worse. It’s nothing.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure! You don’t have to worry about me,” the Lieutenant said. His cheeks colored. “You don’t need to fuss over me. I’m sure it’ll warm my guards’ hearts once I get back; maybe I’ll get a lighter sentence with it.”

“You’re going to break out again?” Bumi asked.

“You – the Equalists might need me. I just have to hope I didn’t waste this chance,” the Lieutenant said, smiling sheepishly. 

Bumi came to a decision. He stood, took out his wallet and put a small stack of twenty-yuan notes on the counter. “Hey, you! I’m paying you now! Go buy yourself something in red! Orange is for air nomads, not firebenders!” 

“Bite me, furball!”

“I also need to borrow your phone!” Bumi yelled. 

Kifa stuck his head through the herbs and gestured to the phone in question, which hung behind the counter. “That’s an extra forty yuans, and there better not be trouble!”

“You’ll get your boss back!”

Kifa’s eyebrows went up. “Ok, there can be trouble, but I expect him to be cleared of everything since my only family’s fated to vegetable-dom or jail at this point.”

“Good. I may end up troubling you too, but it’ll be worth your time,” Bumi said. Kifa squawked as Bumi turned to the Lieutenant. “I should apologize to you, too.”

The Lieutenant looked up at him, his face creasing in confusion. “Why?”

“I’m afraid that you are under arrest. Go sit down; I’m going to call a car to take us back up to where I’m stationed. I think you’ll be more comfortable in my personal custody than back under house arrest, so I hope you’ll go along with me willingly.”

The Lieutenant opened his mouth, but nothing came out. His head sank into his hands. Bumi hopped the counter and dialed for his nephew.

Ok, he hadn’t made much progress on what he originally set out to do, but now he had a whole new set of problems to deal with and an entirely new field of solutions.


	6. Chapter 6

Lieutenant stared into the mirror. He was still having trouble fully grasping exactly what he’d gotten himself into. 

This morning: escaped house arrest and had an awkward lunch with a chi-blocker for no good reason. This afternoon: saved another chi-blocker from a gang, dragged him to get medical help. This evening: that chi-blocker was a general, he was back under arrest, was driven to the United Forces building in a very nice car, and was now in the general’s room having clothing thrown at him so they could go confront an official at a gala rather than being locked up in a nice, tight cell that he wouldn’t be able to talk or otherwise use his mouth out of. Sitting on his bed, even, and looking in the mirrored door of the closet.

He was waiting to wake up. He was definitely waiting to wake up. That was, in no way, a logical progression of events. He was going to wake up in one of Bei Fong’s interrogation rooms courtesy a bucket of cold water and it would turn out the last month was a dream. 

That would explain a lot. Whatever part of him could dream up ‘General Bumi took me home despite all evidence pointing to him being not a general’ could manage ‘Councilman Tarrlok’s psychic bloodbender brother’ easily.

A shirt hit him on the head. Lieutenant pulled the gold-trimmed monstrosity off his head and glared at it. It failed to attempt to eat him in a classic nightmare move. “Are you allowed to dress me up in a United Forces uniform?”

“I’m a general and I’ve got extra political leeway. I’m allowed,” Bumi said from the closet, which Lieutenant translated to _yes, because I said so_ and sighed. 

“It’s not going to fit.”

“I know it’s not,” Bumi said, jangling as he added medals to his shirt. “But there’s no time to get you fitted and it’ll be better for keeping you undiscovered. The Equalists are still a short fuse for most of the UF, and just because I think you’re more helpful to us alive and assisting rather than dead or locked up doesn’t mean the rest of the world does.”

“I still don’t understand the point of this,” Lieutenant said, pulling off his shirt. 

“The point,” Bumi said, “is that the city misses the Equalists. ‘Amon was a monster but the Equalists themselves weren’t that bad.’ ‘The Triads weren’t such a menace when the Equalists were around.’ You wouldn’t have even tried a coup if there wasn’t already massive public support, right?”

“That’s what Amon said,” Lieutenant replied, putting on the oversized red shirt. He barely recognized himself in the mirror. There was some seasick soldier looking back at him, not Amon’s Lieutenant. He never had to flinch away when he saw Amon’s Lieutenant look at him. “You understand that I’m not going to hand you the Equalists on a platter.”

“Of course not! I’m not expecting that.” Lieutenant watched Bumi emerged from his closet, the medals lined up on his chest like wrenches hanging on a wall. “But I really do think working with the Equalists is the only way Republic City’s going to get back to some semblance of normality without another small war breaking out, and you’re the only link to them that I’ve got. So I’ve got to prove that the UF is trustworthy, or at least that I’m trustworthy.”

Lieutenant frowned at Bumi’s reflection. “Maybe you should have started with someone who doesn’t fall for the most basic of lies.”

“What, are you willing to introduce me to someone who wouldn’t?”

“No!”

“Then I’m stuck with you,” Bumi said. He sighed and sat on the bed behind Lieutenant; his reflection looked rueful, which was better than anything Lieutenant had ever gotten from Amon. “I know this isn’t an ideal situation, but it’s the best I can do. It’s at least preferable to house arrest, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Lieutenant said. The soldier in the mirror looked upset. “At least I can pretend I’m being useful here.”

“That’s the spirit!” Bumi thumped him on the back. “Except you really are being useful. Come on, we’re going to be late if we don’t go soon.”

“Of course.” He stood and didn’t look his reflection in the eye. “I’ll follow you.”

Bumi’s reflection flickered unease before settling into a small smile. “It won’t be that bad.” He hopped to his feet and offered a hand, which Lieutenant took. He didn’t have the safety of his insulated rubber gloves, and so his hand closed on warm flesh; Bumi’s hand had calluses in the wrong places, from using fans and swords and boomerangs, and not from fighting hand to hand for years on end, they were entirely the wrong shape, and yet – 

“I know it won’t.” He followed Bumi out and let his hand slip from Bumi’s fingers. 

~*~*~

The UF army was renting a hotel for use by the upper echelons as they helped Republic City piece its government back together. It was also hosting quite a few of the soldiers helping keep the peace in town. And, with the new council members finally in town (minus Tenzin, but he had given an ok for parties without him), the UF felt confident enough to throw itself a ball.

It was, in Bumi’s estimation, premature. It was too early to celebrate the city coming back. It was also, in his estimation, a pretty lousy ball, even if it did come with complimentary drinks.

The Lieutenant followed him closely; his footsteps were almost silent, and Bumi could see him casing the room for exits, escape routes. Bumi hadn’t found suitable replacements for his kali sticks, so he was keeping him unarmed. 

He doubted the Lieutenant would need close watching. He’d given him an offer too sweet to refuse. What he would need to worry about now was politics. He needed to keep his game face on and, once he saw that damn Twaeji, go harass him about his spoiled little soldiers. 

~*~*~

It was easy to fall back into guarding. He didn’t need to think. Doors, windows, people. A room full of soldiers, but none of them seemed likely to attack. He felt naked without his gloves or his yantoks or his goggles, but this wasn’t the Equalists anymore. He didn’t need those. He was _protected_.

His stomach turned at the thought. Lieutenant grabbed a glass from a passing waiter and drank without looking. It was decent rice wine, and the heat of the cup felt nice in his hands. He held it and listened to the crowds around him; speech, laughter, joyous. It was almost like being at one of Hiroshi Sato’s parties, except he could actually talk to people at those parties without completely blowing his cover. 

Just think of batteries and stay quiet, he reminded himself, and took another drink.

Bumi talked. Lieutenant half-listened and watched the ballroom through his wine. It had been a long time since he had to deal with anything so loud. The rally was louder, but this place felt as loud. His hands were too naked with no gloves; there was no comforting weight of his generator on his back, nor his yantoks against his shoulders. 

Bumi talked. Bumi hugged people, Bumi pulled people into conversations, Bumi _was_ a conversation. Nothing of use was mentioned, though Bumi apparently had a good memory for family members. Republic City was peaceful now, hah, and he noticed that Bumi didn’t agree with them when they say it. Republic City is free of Equalists, said the new Northern Water Tribe councilman, and it will stay that way if he has anything to say about it; Lieutenant drained his glass and got a new one. He stayed two steps behind his master.

“Having fun, Lieutenant?”

Lieutenant turned to see Kaja. The healer was a pillar of blue Water Tribe clothes in the sea of red uniforms; Kifa, sullen in orange, was close behind him.

“What are you doing here?” asked Lieutenant.

“Well, after they went and interrogated me about where you disappeared,” Kaja said, “I invited myself to see the infirmary here. There were some very charming nurses, and then I heard there would be a party and decided to grace it. I heard you’ve managed to get on the good side of a general, of all people! Maybe this means your luck is looking up?”

“Perhaps,” Lieutenant said. It was the safest thing to say at the moment.

“A general would be rather helpful for you, wouldn’t he? Especially since the only thing keeping you out of a triad-filled jail is the Avatar’s good graces.” Kaja giggled. Lieutenant clutched his drink.

Kifa rolled his eyes. “Kaja, can we go? I need to find that guy and talk to him about Sri. You can play cat and mouse with Whiskers later. It’s not like he can get away.”

“It’s not like you can talk about cat and – oh, fine,” Kaja said. He swept away; Kifa winked at Lieutenant before following a few steps behind him.

Lieutenant finished his wine, then got another cup. He needed it. He didn’t know where Bumi had gone during that brief conversation, and the room swam with red. He wasn’t going to go swimming in a pool of army men to find him. What if one recognized him? What if he was sent off with orders because someone thought he was a real soldier and he couldn’t find his way back? 

And someone ran into him. Rice wine spilled onto his shirt. Lieutenant stopped his hands before they could reach for yantoks that weren’t there and backed away; the other man, a black-maned boar of a man in United Forces uniform, stalked after him. 

“Where do you think you’re going?”

This never happened at Sato parties. Lieutenant held his glass like a shield and answered, “I apologize for running into you, sir.” Hiroshi could talk his way out of these things, he said that politeness was the grease that got him where he needed to be. Politeness and breaking kneecaps. He could do polite; kneecaps wouldn’t be as helpful in this situation. “I won’t do it again. Please accept my apologies.”

“Good,” the man said. He didn’t have nearly as many medals as Bumi did, but they had been arranged to catch the eye. Lieutenant took a deep breath and did not let go of his glass. “Why did they let a mere lieutenant get in here, anyway? This is a party for high-ranking officials.”

Lieutenant held his glass tightly. “Ordered here, sir. Can’t disobey orders. You know how it is.”

“I don’t, but I bet you do,” the boar man said. He advanced, and Lieutenant was acutely aware of how close he was to the wall and the sides of the room. Red ringed them, red closed in, and Lieutenant was alone. “Who brought you here?” 

“I did!”

Bumi practically tackled the man, pulling him away from Lieutenant. “Oh, Twaeji, it’s good to see you!” And Bumi clamped down on the man before he could escape. “I’ve just been dying to ask you about you and your little soldier boys! I see you’ve met my new aide; you haven’t been causing him trouble, have you?”

“No, of course not!”

“Because I heard you yelling about being bumped into but he’s the one who’s got wine all over him, and that’s awfully confusing! But I’m just a little slow, so I’m sure I haven’t got it figured out right.” It was like watching a runaway train derail. Lieutenant tried to sip his drink casually, but there wasn’t anything left in it. He put it down on a table and moved around so he could trip up Twaeji if he tried to get away from Bumi. It seemed only fair. “So, tell me about how your boys are faring after that incident yesterday.”

“They’re fine,” Twaeji said, trying to get away from Bumi’s sealion smile. “I have them confined to their rooms for now.”

“Good, because I don’t want another repeat of Ba Sing Se,” Bumi said, his fingers tightening on Twaeji’s collar. “You only barely crawled out of that, didn’t you?”

“You’re not going to get away with threatening an officer who’s still in the boundaries of the law sooner or later.”

“You’re going to run out of lawyer fees and loopholes sooner or later,” Bumi said. “I want to schedule a meeting with you tomorrow to talk about this some more. Republic City’s not happy about this.”

“And how would you know?”

“I went walking and talked to people this afternoon,” Bumi said. He let Twaeji go and dusted his hands off. “And the newspaper’s all over it.”

“Fine,” Twaeji said. “If that’ll get you to leave me alone, I’ll do it.” 

“Thank you,” Bumi said, and gestured for him to go. Twaeji fled. Bumi watched him run, then moved to Lieutenant. “You alright?”

“It’s nothing. It’s,” Lieutenant said, then evaluated himself and shook his head. “I suppose I’m a little tipsy.”

“That was what we came for,” Bumi said, gesturing at the fleeing back of Twaeji. “We can go.”

“Then let’s go.”

They went, and Lieutenant followed two steps behind Bumi until they got into the large hallways beyond the ballroom. Bumi reached behind him and caught his hand again, a light grip, and Lieutenant again wondered at how strange his hands felt. The calluses were in all the wrong places, but it was still warm and familiar.

“Better?”

“Better,” Lieutenant confirmed. Bumi pulled him so that they were walking side by side, like equals. “It was loud in there.”

“It was. The wine probably didn’t help.”

“It didn’t.” 

“You went for it as soon as we got through the door,” Bumi said, conversationally casual, and Lieutenant frowned. 

“You don’t have to be so nice.” Bumi raised his eyebrows, and Lieutenant looked around to check that people weren’t listening in before continuing quietly: “I’m not going to be any help to you in finding the other Equalists, or in bringing peace to this city.”

They kept on walking, and Lieutenant’s voice got quieter and faster as they walked, and Bumi listened.

“There’s nothing useful I can give you except my service, and you could get that from any soldier under your command.”

He could feel Bumi watching him. He shook off Bumi’s hand and asked, looking him in the eyes:

“What do you really want from me?”

They reached the elevators. Bumi picked one and hit the floor to his room; he didn’t reply until the door had closed behind them and the elevator was creeping up.

“It’s reasonable you don’t trust me. The UF's been nothing but harmful to the Equalists and to you. But - look, I’m a wildman and everyone knows it,” Bumi said, pressing a hand to his chest and Lieutenant pretended not to be reminded of Amon’s speeches, that gesture. “But I’m also of the Fire Nation; the current policy is not to meddle more than we have to. What’s it going to look like if the Fire Nation’s poking around in the colonies and supporting an upstart group that’s trying to overthrow the current council?”

“Bad,” Lieutenant said.

“Awful. Our councilwoman was a doormat, but she was specifically sent to do that. Tarrlok took advantage of that, and that’s something the Fire Lord’s trying to fix with the new guy, but that still ended up screwing the city over. Plus, this is Tenzin’s city, my little brother’s city, and what’d he think if I messed around with his city?”

“Worse.”

“Right! We don’t infringe on our siblings unless we really have to, like with – that. That little stunt with getting rid of the last airbenders.” Bumi ran a hand through his hair, sighing. “You do realize that if I had thought they were in danger, you wouldn’t have gotten such nice treatment now, don’t you?”

Lieutenant managed a wan smile. “I thought – once your identity sank in. If I had said we were going to kill them, I wouldn’t have walked out of the door. They’d have to carry me out in pieces.”

Bumi laughed. “It’s true!”

“It is,” Lieutenant said. That, somehow, made him feel better. Or maybe that was the third cup of wine setting in. “You know something funny? My first thought wasn’t terror but mortification. I’d gotten fooled again.”

Bumi flung an arm over his shoulder. He was warm, like a furnace, and Lieutenant felt himself melting in the heat. “Why would you believe me? You already got badly burned once by Amon. Why should you believe another man’s outrageous claims? Even if it’s because I’m too ugly for the part.”

Bumi winked. Lieutenant looked away. He could feel his face burning, though he didn’t know if it was from the wine or something else entirely. This has never been a problem before. This wasn’t happening. It had to be the wine. 

The elevator dinged open. Lieutenant ducked out of Bumi’s grasp and into the hall, looking for their hotel room. By the time he remembered the number, Bumi took his hand again and was leading him there; Lieutenant let his hand curl together with Bumi’s. It was almost too familiar; there were callouses in the wrong places, but the hand was right.

He clung to Bumi until they got into the room; he didn’t let go of his hand as Bumi closed the door and made sure it was locked before he continued speaking. 

“What do I want from you? I don’t know yet. You may not be willing to tell me about the Equalists, but you do know about the Triads here; that’s valuable information. You know your way around town, places that the benders here wouldn’t. And,” Bumi said, “you seem like a good man, and I didn’t want to leave you rotting in house arrest.”

Lieutenant stared at him. Bumi didn’t look like he was lying, but what did lying look like? Amon had lied to him for years and he’d never picked up. Eyes were supposed to be the windows to the soul, but he couldn’t tell anymore. He couldn't. Bumi’s eyes weren’t saying anything different than his words were, as far as Lieutenant could tell. 

A flash of red caught his eye. Lieutenant looked; in the mirror, the sickly UF soldier looked back. His hand was wrapped in Bumi’s, and Bumi seemed to engulf him. He was the sun, and Lieutenant was, was - 

Was just one more soldier for him, in service. Picked on a commander’s whim.

Lieutenant smiled. That, he could do. He was good at serving. He was good at taking orders. And, eventually, Bumi would tell him something that would be useful for the Equalists. Or he’d decide that if Lieutenant was so good, maybe it would be a good idea to support the Equalists too. To reward him. Or because he liked them. He would be more useful here than in house arrest.

He’d gained enough trust to become one man’s second in command. Could he do it again?

“I believe you,” he said, and took Bumi’s other hand. It was more warmth than he was used to; the callouses were wrong, but that didn’t matter. “You’re too soft, though. The triads would spit you up and chew you out.”

“I’m not nearly so nice to everyone else,” Bumi said.

Lieutenant laughed. “I’m not that special, am I?”

“You get some leeway for accidentally saving the Avatar and for purposefully saving me,” Bumi said. He raised Lieutenant’s hands and bowed his head to him for a moment. “Not just anyone jumps in to save a man from gangsters.”

“It needed to be done,” Lieutenant said. He raised their hands and pressed Bumi’s head up. “It’s not important.”

“Of course it’s important!” said Bumi.

Lieutenant shook his head and shook off Bumi’s hands. He sat on the bed, in front of the mirror. “I’m going to prepare for bed. Have they come with my belongings yet?”

“Afraid not,” said Bumi. “You can borrow my pajamas.”

“Thanks.” Lieutenant started fumbling with the buttons of the uniform shirt. The seemed to slip from his fingers; his old uniform wasn’t so difficult to get off. How did he – buttons were not supposed to be this hard to deal with –

And there was Bumi. He put a stack of clothes next to Lieutenant, and Lieutenant almost jumped with his sudden appearance. “Need some help?”

Lieutenant looked away. This was a great start to his plan, not even being sober enough to unbutton his own shirt. He shook his head, then – no, wait. Wasn’t a subordinate supposed to be weaker? That was it, wasn’t it? Amon had, despite everything, kept that line between leader and second in command strong. He was always in control, even when they had – they – 

He nodded. Bumi knelt and started unbuttoning the shirt. His hands were deft, his fingers stubby; Lieutenant watched them as they laced in and out of buttonholes. His hands were like bark, dark brown and weathered with age, and sometimes a knuckle grazed Lieutenant’s bare chest.

Lieutenant realized his hands were on Bumi’s shoulders. He wasn’t sure how they’d gotten there. It seemed right. The collar of Bumi’s shirt was the regal insignia of the Fire Nation, and it hid entirely too much of his neck. He had an angular chin that would peek out from under a mask, and his beard was. It looked like what Avatar Aang had had, once. Lieutenant had seen him in pictures. 

He realized Bumi had stopped unbuttoning his shirt. Was he done? Lieutenant was leaning toward him. What was he doing? No, what was he supposed to be doing?

…oh, right.

Lieutenant leaned in and kissed Bumi.

Bumi made a sound of surprise and pushed Lieutenant away. Lieutenant blinked, then tried to kiss him again. Bumi put a hand over his mouth before he could do it again. “Stop.”

“I thrt – “ Lieutenant pulled the hand off his mouth and glared. “I thought you had at least two people to sleep with on every port.”

“Yes, but I generally do so when they’re sober enough to undress themselves,” Bumi said. He put the pajamas on Lieutenant’s lap, then stood. “Go sleep. I’m not doing anything with you if I suspect you’re a few minutes from keeling over.” 

“But – no! That’s not a problem! And it’s not going to be a problem!” Lieutenant scrambled to his feet, following Bumi as he stalked to the bathroom. “Bumi, please!”

“Nope.” Bumi filled a glass of water from the tap and gave it to Lieutenant. “Drink this and go to sleep.”

“But – “

“I’m not changing my mind.” Bumi took Lieutenant by the shoulders and steered him out of the bathroom. “And I’m not doing anything that you’re not going to remember in the morning. Go to bed.”

Lieutenant found himself on the bed. He drank the water and sat on the bed. He waited for Bumi to leave the bathroom so he could try and talk to him again. He unlaced his boots and kicked them off, then peeled off the red uniform and tossed it on top of them so that the damn soldier in the mirror would go away and be Lieutenant again.

He lay down. The bed was a little softer than the one at house arrest. Wider, too. Wide and soft and cold. Not much to do here but follow orders.

He fumbled the lights off and tried to sleep.

~*~*~

“They’re not going to jail. They’ve done nothing wrong,” Twaeji said. 

Kifa slammed a hand against the wall. “They did plenty wrong! It was an unprovoked attack!”

“The Equalists don’t need weapons to kill. Please don’t harm the hotel.”

“I’ll harm it all I want to,” Kifa said, and shook his hand. His knuckles were bloody. “My sister’s in a coma. A coma! Her boyfriend’s lower than the dirt on my boots, but he’s not dumb enough to rush a bunch of soldiers. You stop telling lies about them and I’ll stop getting mad. Don’t lie to me.”

“It’s the truth, and it will be the truth,” said Twaeji. “Who’s going to believe Equalists didn’t start the fight? Other than some crazy male nurse.”

Kifa started to pace. “Well, the military wouldn’t, would they?”

“Nope!”

“And the police wouldn’t, either. And I bet the UF would hardly like it.”

“You’re right. You see, you’re just upset because your sister got hurt. She was an Equalist; she deserved it,” Twaeji said. “You seem like a good man when you’re not getting mad over little things. Why don’t you go home?”

Kifa stared at the wall and looked at his bloody knuckles. “I suppose,” he said, “I should. No one in the world would believe me, would they?”

“Not when they see the facts.”

“The only way to fix it is to change the world,” Kifa said. He smiled. “Like clearing the pus from a wound. Once that’s done, it would go much easier, wouldn’t it? And it’d need to be done by something sterile, too, that’s not part of either side.”

“What are you talking about?”

Kifa spun on the toe of his boot and went into a bending form, his arms sweeping together. Twaeji reacted, shoving a blast of fire at Kifa. 

Their attacks connected at the same time.

Kifa shrieked and patted out the fire in his orange jacket, then turned back to Twaeji. “How rude! I thought firebenders valued revenge! It’s all you hear Agni Kais talk about, blah blah blah honor blah blah blah revenge, you’re all broken records. My coat is ruined.” He raised his eyebrows. “You don’t mind if I borrow a jacket from you, do you?

Twaeji didn’t answer. This was because he had no head. Kifa tsked and shoved open Twaeji’s closet, pulling out an oversized coat. He put it on. “It’s far too big for me, but it’ll do.” He clapped his hands together. “Alright. I need – I need to find those bozos who attacked my darling Sri. I need to find out who set up all the anti-Equalist sentiment and get rid of them, because this wouldn’t have happened without them. Is that the council? I’ll need to see if the new ones are any good. If I’m going all Blue Spirit, I ought to go all the way.” He twisted his hands again, bending, and the cover of the hotel safe crumpled. Kifa took papers out of it and pocketed them. “I don’t see why Amon didn’t go for the self-hating bender gig! That was so popular with Zuko back in the day. But I suspect a bloody one-man revolution will have to do instead.”

He kicked what remained of Twaeji’s head and grinned as it thunked against the wall. “You know those stories about spirits that eat penanggals? Of course you don’t, you’re dead and I’m talking to myself. The penanggals are always so scared when they meet something that does to them like they do unto others. Eats them up like they eat their victims.

“I can’t wait to see everyone’s faces when they meet me.”

Kifa undid the latches of the window, then jumped out. After a moment, the window latched shut behind him.

~*~*~

Bumi had left a dime novel in the bathroom earlier. He flipped through it and finished _Wang Fire and the Song of Time_ , then tip-toed out of the bathroom. The light from the bathroom was enough for Bumi to see the rest of the room.

The Lieutenant was asleep, curled on his side. He hadn’t bothered to put on pajamas or even crawl under the covers. In the glow from the bathroom, there was an added hollow to his cheeks.

Bumi picked up the Lieutenant’s discarded shirt and hung it up in the hotel closet. Then, he grabbed one of the extra blankets from the closet, a pillow from the bed, and set up a place to sleep on the couch. He figured the Lieutenant could use the space, and he didn’t want him jumping to conclusions in the morning. If he even remembered the kiss.

That kiss. Where had that even come from? 

Eh, he'd figure out tomorrow. Bumi fell asleep.


End file.
